Stink returns to haunt Kapra areas despite dump yard capping works

Hyderabad: After a few days of respite, the nightmare has returned with a putrid stench engulfing Sainikpuri, Kapra, Neredmet and ECIL.

While the ‘official’ cause of the stench is not defined yet, residents squarely blame the Jawaharnagar dump yard.

“It is dreadful to open the windows after sunset, as the foul-smelling stench enters the house. We are doing our best to ensure that it does not affect us. As it turns out, the stench-spread is dependent on the way the wind is blowing,” said Shanker Valadi, a resident of Second Avenue, in Sainikpuri.

Similarly, V. Subba Rao, who lives near the dump, notes that there has been no permanent end to this nuisance despite the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) claiming that they have completed the dump yard capping works.

However, when contacted, GHMC commissioner, D.S.  Lokesh Kumar said that the capping works would be completed in the next 30-35 days.

“There is still a part of the dump that has not been capped at all. We are waiting for the government to look for another site for the city’s waste. Why are we deprived of the right to breathe clean air” questioned Subba Rao.

It is not just the residents, even the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), in its Guidelines for Disposal of Legacy Waste says that the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, categorically mandate clearing of sites as the first option.

‘Still, capping is often proposed or considered an option in India merely because it is done in the West.

But levelling a dump site almost to ground level rather than capping it is a far better option for permanent pollution prevention,’ it says.

Apart from the stench, the methane produced at solid waste disposal sites contributes approximately three to four per cent to the annual global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC, 2001).

“Clearing these mounds of years-old waste, called legacy waste, is the easiest and fastest way to reduce our national emissions, and save surrounding villages from polluted water sources, smoke, , flies and stench,” it says.